This IOC Medical Covid-19 hub has been created to help support staff provide good medical care of Olympic athletes. Over a year ago, the IOC brought together an international group of experts in respiratory illnesses to develop a Consensus statement on Acute respiratory illness in athletes led by Martin Schwellnus from South Africa.
The consensus group was divided into six sub-groups to cover different aspects of acute respiratory illness. A seventh subgroup has now been established focusing on COVID-19 to help medical support teams cope with the demands of the new situation. The IOC has created a large team primarily from the IOC research centres and representatives from International Federations to work on COVID-19 Scientific Evidence for Athlete management.
The IOC realises the challenges of finding, studying, and acting on the flow of current information. This hub will help all those involved in athlete care to decide whether news is real or fake and whether supposed scientific break-throughs are based on real data or are hypothetical extrapolations.
The IOC Medical COVID-19 Hub content will be a combination of the following:
- A repository of scientific advice, communications, links and relevant information that is gathered and provided by our colleagues in IOC Research Centres, Academic Sport Medicine Institutions, NOCs, IFs, and general sports medicine
- Disseminating ongoing literature searches for relevant scientific papers to add to the existing repository
- Provide a platform for publishing international Case Series to study the recovery of athletes from COVID-19